|MOVIE DATE|

[chasinghumanity]

It was a date, but it wasn't. It really, really wasn't. Mitchell kept reminding himself of this over and over, but the word kept creeping up and sticking itself in his brain. There are some stupid mistakes that, no matter how much you tell yourself they're stupid and that you should forget about them, only keep coming back to you. In fact,

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[justsookie]

If Sookie really thought about her life carefully enough, the number of actual dates that she'd gone on could be counted on both hands, making it right impossible to know what to anticipate that evening with Mitchell. Not, of course, that it was a date date. Just popcorn and a movie with a close friend, the sort of thing that friends did all the time when they weren't stranded on a desert island, and now that they'd found a projector, there was nothing to keep them from replicating the scenario as best they could on Tabula Rasa. But it was strictly a date between friends, because Mitchell had hinted as such, because without any thoughts snagging in her mind to read, she had to trust his words. Wanted to give him that benefit of the doubt

[chasinghumanity]

Too enraptured with the tastes melting on his tongue, Mitchell couldn't bother to be embarrassed. Especially not with Sookie. Whether or not this was a date, Mitchell considered her friend enough to see him bordering on ridiculous, trusting she'd only judge him as much as George or Annie would, and rightfully so.

"Might be longer than a while," he admitted through a chuckle, the grin that spread across his face crinkling the corners of his eyes and making them seem to dance. "This stuff tastes almost as good as theatre popcorn. I mean, it's not the same obviously. There are probably a lot of burned bits hidden in there. But it's pretty damn close."

[justsookie]

"Well, whenever the two of you are done with your torrid little affair," Sookie laughed, "let me know

[chasinghumanity]

Mitchell watched her push the beds together, content to just sit and not ask questions, knowing the answers would reveal themselves. She hadn't asked for help either. He kept reminding himself that Sookie was that way, with one of those fiercely independent streaks in her, and doing the gentlemanly thing wouldn't necessarily go over well. The beds weren't exactly heavy anyway, the scrape of the metal legs against the concrete floor the only sign of real struggle

[justsookie]

Even though Sookie knew that Mitchell never intentionally meant to catch her off guard or make her uneasy in the slightest, she couldn't help wondering again at all of the teasing, whether or not there was any sort of truth to be discerned behind the tone. Had he expected that they would simply share a bed? The only times Sookie had ever done so in her life, not counting huddling with Jason to escape the many monsters under their beds, were with Bill or Sam, and the latter hadn't even been realized under after the fact. She knew that hypothetically, it was possible for friends to cuddle, to lie on narrow mattresses with one another, but Sookie also didn't know how to act to that effect when being so close to someone else in the setting of a dark bedroom already made her mind wander

[chasinghumanity]

Mitchell's planning skills hadn't actually gotten that far. In the scenario where Sookie hadn't pushed the beds together, he would have scooted and slid enough for her to have enough room, probably would have ended up with an arm around her and would have spent half the movie secretly worried she'd hear his heart racing, the other half genuinely trying to watch. But her action had saved them a lot of trouble, and a good tease was his way of relishing in it. The easiness, the good feelings. Those had to be cherished and making light of everything else was the way to do it

[justsookie]

One thing that Sookie could never tire of in Mitchell was his voice. Or perhaps more realistically, the combination of his voice with everything else- the lilt of his accent, the deep roll of his laughter. There was very little about a man's voice that Sookie could not appreciate, not when it was so decidedly masculine, one of the things that didn't have to be anything more than sound being pleasant to the ears. She let herself smile at him for a while, running over the tone of his voice a few times just to solidify the memory- a habit that she had gotten into lately, with all the mentions of people leaving, just in case. Even more of a reason came in the fact that she was slowly starting to feel certain memories fading, the texture of Bill's voice. She had even started to mimic him in the middle of the night, sometimes holding entire conversations in the quiet of her hut

[chasinghumanity]

"Definitely, definitely more cruel," he decreed, more of a smile in his eyes than on his face, though his mouth had a telling curve to it as well. It was difficult to smile entirely though when Mitchell knew full well just how cruel women could be. People, really, but the women were the scary ones. "Kipling had it right. Well... sort of." This last came with a slight roll of the eyes, thinking back to the poem. Mitchell couldn't remember every line and every theme, but he did remember the catchy bits

[justsookie]

About forty minutes passed without too much incident; it had been so long since Sookie last watched the film that she found herself extremely engaged, the black and white tones giving everything a more romantic and whimsical air. The bright smile which had been on her face at the start gradually faded into a softly intrigued stare- films like these helped shape the expectations Sookie had of romance, growing up, while reality found her hopes dashed entirely when she tried stepping out at all. It was strange to watch it all in retrospect, the beautiful curve of the Arc de Triomphe fading in as Rick and Ilsa's montage began. Suddenly, Sookie blinked, coming to the realization that she'd rested her head on Mitchell's shoulder again, almost mirroring the way Ilsa had as she and Rick drove slowly along the country road

[chasinghumanity]

It was an easy movie to get lost in, probably part of the reason it was a classic. Maybe not the most realistic view of Morocco, but the characters felt very real, their feelings did, and that made up for it all in the end. The time ticked by and the popcorn dwindled, Mitchell rarely shifting even so much as to grab his glass but for a few times.

So when Sookie spoke up, he had to blink several times, as though waking up from a dream. The question didn't make sense at first, but he followed eventually. "What, the forties? The war?" he clarified, his voice hushed as though they really were in a cinema. "I don't know. The manners were different. Different standards, different ideas of what's cool. And the war added some tension. A big question mark for a future, and God, England went through hell. Just miserable. But it didn't feel different, you know? It just felt like living. Living in extraordinary and questionable times maybe, but it's all the same really."

[justsookie]

"All of it," Sookie murmured, gaze dropping back down to the screen as she let her head rest again. Even though Mitchell suggested that it was all more of the same at the core, Sookie found herself hard-pressed to believe it. Maybe it was a European thing, all politics and people strong enough not to let war get to their heads, who fought for ground using song even under the most impossible of circumstances. It wasn't a complete picture, perhaps only the pinks and oranges of a fight which was so much more grisly at the core, but it was lively, passionate, something Sookie wondered if the others in Bon Temps would experience at all. So many of them lived day to day, content with the past repeating itself and dishing out the same plate, and a part of her then realized that the problem she felt in Tabula Rasa was that it was much of the same thing

[chasinghumanity]

He could tell it wasn't quite the answer Sookie had wanted. People, vampires included, had this tendency to change the past with their own perspective. Things were more brilliant or duller. It was either excitement and charged atmospheres or miserable sorrow or even mind-numbing mediocrity. It never just was which was how Mitchell tended to work. He couldn't glorify that section of the past. The best stories are about you, Mitchell, Seth had said. Those best stories had their start in this time, the 20s, the 30s, the 40s. The glory days of youth. Now, in his older age, Mitchell was hard-pressed to romanticized an age that let him get away with everything

[justsookie]

The statement hit Sookie hard, somewhere in the middle of her chest, pressing against her sternum with a sharp pain. She closed her eyes then- even if she'd lost her parents at a young age, most everything in Sookie's life had remained there, each piece fitting together well in a life that worked, even if it was never the ideal. To have it all eased from her over the course of a couple of weeks, and then removed entirely upon her arrival on the island, it wasn't a change that Sookie had grown accustomed to yet, nor one that she imagined she ever would. She was still treating the island and its inhabitants like people she'd known back home, with who she could push and push and never really have them run away, because that was how Bon Temps was, everyone drawn together as a collective, the good along with the bad

[chasinghumanity]

Frowning, Mitchell noted the slight shudder that went through her body, how her shoulders suddenly tensed. Nothing in the movie had become so dire as to cause her to react like that. And he couldn't think of a damn thing he'd done wrong; if anything he'd gone easy on her. (Funny how he felt this need to watch his step with Sookie sometimes or wonder he'd done something wrong. Usually he just didn't worry.)

Careful not to dislodge her head, he shifted his arm so he could wrap it around her shoulders, try to draw her a bit closer. In the midst of this, he had to blink and look up at the screen again. A grin replaced his frown for a second as he nodded. "Yeah, I ran through for some reason. I don't know, the guy told me to look like I was in a rush. They were too caught up in the stars to notice I didn't actually show up on camera."

Explanation done, he quickly looked at Sookie again as he squeezed her arm. "You alright? Cold or something?"

[justsookie]

As much as Sookie tried to shake off any unease, and as well as it felt to have Mitchell's arm draped around her shoulders, she only found that her pulse started racing more and the grin gradually faded from her face- she wondered if he felt it, with her being pressed against his side now, the subtle beat by the side of her ribcage as it held against him. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Sookie let everything out in a slow exhale, nodding her head lightly. "I'm okay," she smiled, even as her lips pressed together tightly after

[chasinghumanity]

Ah, flattery. The best of distractions. Mitchell let it pass, assuming it was some reaction Sookie did not want to talk about and something unrelated to him. She wouldn't let him keep his arm around her if she were uncomfortable with him, now would she?

"Wasn't always," he reminded her, his grin almost rakish for a fleeting moment. The gloves had done excellent work of fooling lots of people, so much so he'd worn them nearly every day since they'd come into fashion (and out of). He was strangely proud of them, even if he got some teasing for it.

"But I didn't look back in black and white. Before I died, I had a couple pictures taken. Looked a bit daft, just from the poses, but not bad. I think I look better in color and in flesh though."